Next to Normal

Fiona saw Next to Normal at the Mixed Blood Theater and called me on her cell phone as soon as she walked out of the theater to demand that YOU MUST GO SEE THIS IMMEDIATELY OMG. I went to see it the next day. I have since bought the soundtrack and am listening to it now. Mixed Blood did a fabulous job with it.

For those of you not familiar with this musical (I wasn't), Next to Normal is an account of a family struggling with mental illness. The mother is bipolar, and the father, who really loves her, is at his wit's end. The play also includes the son, the daughter, and the daughter's boyfriend, and carefully shows how the turmoil caused by mental illness reverberates throughout the entire family system, into the next generation.

The music was also stunning. Here is a performance between the mother (Alice Ripley), the father (J. Robert Spencer), and the son (Aaron Tveit) of the Broadway cast, who also recorded the soundtrack. (The performance begins at the 1:10 minute mark).

( You Don't Know/I Am the One )

Another song performed by Alice Ripley gets at the issue of medication noncompliance, how some people go off their medications because they miss the highs of the manic phase.

( I Miss the Mountains )

Anyway, if you are interested in the topic of severe mental illness and its effect on family dynamics, I really recommend the soundtrack.

Quiet day

I went into work. And then my body said, "Uh, no." I had cut the pain medication just a touch too early. So I came home and spent a quiet day at home puttering about doing simple, small tasks which have been put off for far too long. I cleaned up a corner of my bedroom; it was absurd how happy this made me to see three feet of clear space. I shredded a bunch of old checks for some bank accounts that have been closed, since I moved to a credit union.

Not much stamina still. I'll be going to bed early tonight.